Trenches are required to be supported or shored whilst open to prevent the collapse of walls of the trench. This allows the safe installation of piping and cabling in the trench. To support the trench, trenching supports, also referred to as trench boxes, may be used. Such trenching supports include two wall support panels that are connected via a brace that spans between the two wall support panels.
In use, the assembled trenching support may be lowered into the trench with the two wall support panels being located adjacent the walls of the trench and the brace arranged to span the width of the trench. The two wall support panels may, for example, have a height of two and half metres and a length of about 1 metre. For long trenches multiples of the trenching supports may be used and placed alongside each other lengthwise along the trench.
A problem with these trenching supports relates to the weight of the trenching supports that are typically preassembled and it is often required to use a crane or lifting machine to lower the trenching supports into the trench. The use of a crane may be expensive, and crane access may in some situations be limited or not available.
Another problem with these trenching supports relates to the adaptability of the trenching supports to trenches of different shapes, lengths, heights, widths and installation situations.
The invention disclosed herein seeks to overcome one or more of the above identified problems or at least provide a useful alternative.